This application relates to methods, devices, systems for fluid handling. The field of nucleic acid assays has been transformed by microarrays which allow extremely high-throughput and parallel monitoring of gene expression events, expression profiling, diagnostics and large-scale, high-resolution analyses, among other applications. Microarrays are used in biological research, clinical diagnostics, drug discovery, environmental monitoring, forensics and many other fields.
Current genetic research generally relies on a multiplicity of distinct processes to elucidate the nucleic acid sequences, with each process to introducing a potential for error into the overall process. These processes also draw from a large number of distinct disciplines, including chemistry, molecular biology, medicine and others. It would therefore be desirable to integrate the various process used in genetic diagnosis, in a single process, at a minimum cost, and with a maximum ease of operation.
Interest has been growing in the fabrication of microfluidic devices. Typically, advances in the semiconductor manufacturing arts have been translated to the fabrication of micromechanical structures, e.g., micropumps, microvalves and the like, and microfluidic devices including miniature chambers and flow passages.
A number of researchers have attempted to employ these microfabrication techniques in the miniaturization of some of the processes involved in genetic analysis in particular. Conventional approaches often will inevitably involve extremely complicated fluidic networks as more and more reagents are added into systems, and more samples are processed. By going to a smaller platform, such fluidic complexity brings many concerns such as difficulty in fabrication, higher manufacture cost, lower system reliability, etc. Thus, there's a need to have a simpler way to process samples and perform the reactions in a controlled fashion. However, there remains a need for an apparatus which simplifies and combines the processing of multiple samples and performing the multiple reactions and steps involved in the various operations in the nucleic acid analysis. During the processing of samples, it is often desirable to provide an efficient and effective way to mix the fluids. Various embodiments of the present invention meet one or more of these and other needs.